It's becoming increasingly clear to me that Venezuela seems to have this beauty thing down pat. Miss Venezuela won the 2009 Miss Universe pageant in The Bahamas on August 23 and it's almost no surprise when a young woman from that country takes a world crown.

Stefania Fernandez is the sixth senorita from Venezuela to win Miss Universe. This was the first time the same country was winning consecutive titles as well. Throw in the fact that the Venezuelans also have five Miss World titles and you see they know how to pick them. Like football to the Brazilians, bobsleigh to the Nordic countries and sprinting to the Jamaicans, Venezuelans seem to do one thing better than everybody else: produce beauty queens.

Sure, the country has a great history in many other areas from politics to food, all of which is noteworthy and fit to be emulated. But, somehow, when you hear what they accomplish on the Miss World or Miss Universe stage, it never seems to surprise us. The other countries I named all seem to have the particular field of expertise I associate with them down to a science. They study it, see where they went wrong the times they didn't win, go back to the always-useful drawing board and wheel and come again! Venezuela seems to do the same with beauty contests.

What bothers me is that some Jamaicans (women especially) frown whenever a woman of this South American land takes a world title. That is just bad mind, pure and simple. Consider that South America is football crazy and yet Venezuela has never been to the World Cup. Nobody says, "Dem wutless eeh!" But the minute the MC says "and the winner ... is Miss Venezuela", people start to groan and complain. "Again!" they bawl in dismay, maybe even throwing in a few thoughts about the young woman's alleged lack of looks.

Kelly

Fact is, beauty contests don't just deal with physical beauty, and because deciding who is beautiful is subjective, you're always going to have somebody, somewhere in the world, disagreeing with the judges' choice. As for Fernandez, she's tall, svelte and pretty (to my eye). Whether she can come up with a cure for AIDS, I don't know, but at least she doesn't sound dunce! From a mere physical perspective, I was rooting for Miss Dominican Republic but so many of these young women caught my eye, my head started to swim. Jamaica's own Carolyn Yapp is cute and all, but the taller women always catch my eye first.

So congrats to Miss Venezuela. Hop off a di girl fenda you haters. As for Jamaica, oh well, after the success in Berlin, guess we can't win everything!

daviot.kelly@gleanerjm.com